Finding Stylistic Models and Practice in Communication of Professional Writings

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September 12, 2010

Various perspectives can be applied in studying the use of metaphors in the process of business communication. The French scientific literature divides the problem into three main aspects. The French Translator agency distinguishes between the following: the use of metaphor in competitive strategy, the use of metaphors in changing organizations and the purpose of metaphors from a linguistic perspective. The models of interrelationships offered by a metaphor are in most cases made-up, which means its function is to provide the link between two contrasting theoretical domains. They express a logical contradiction and a thorough examination of the problem proves that. Inside the metaphor the various contradictions serve as a major catalyst, which introduced fresh ideas, encourages new product development and passes on new concepts. It is quite agreeable to point out to the abstract concepts triggered by the subconscious processes that metaphors mirror. Furthermore, in order to image schemas that can be defined as culture bound, abstract perceptions are derived from a reformulation of concrete perceptions through metaphorical analysis as they trace the source of conceptual metaphors.

The main function of a conceptual metaphor is to provide the conceptual glue that will keep a cultural system together with a view to creating another one and to produce a process of collective cultural ideas and models. Linguistic and literary scholarship in Italy did not make an excessive use of metaphorical analyses, but when an Italian Translation service translated their key concepts, they began a gradual process of evolution and now social science and business literature is unthinkable without them. Both analysts and strategists have been quick to acknowledge the value of metaphors and metaphorical language one of the key means to ensure companies are provided with valuable insights. Various arguments have been inspired by the purpose, interpretation and use of metaphor, but its impact is indisputable in all branches of business studies today. In order to simplify the complex description of an organization in organizational change settings, one can use metaphor as the most uncomplicated method. Organization development, policy, strategy, organization design and production management, decision-making, leadership, organization design and production management are only some of the analyses that can be carried out within a particular company. All in all, its usage is restricted to describing and conveying large amounts of information and understanding organizational practices and problems.

In the German competitive strategy literature metaphors provide the basis for the four of the most frequently used frameworks. According to the English to German Translation bureau, who has rendered them for a wider audience, they underline the evolutionary market and strategic alliance frameworks as the dominant motifs of using metaphors in the strategy literature. Language can be used to convey ideas through competitive strategy metaphors and management researchers see it as a means of turning it into implicit knowledge, which is not easily expressed as it is a way of perceiving the world. The deficit of the inability to put across separate symbol systems is what a metaphor generally captures. In dealing with cross-cultural communication in an international context with multiple shareholders, a strategic metaphor helps to attain standardization of purpose and development of associations with the organization. A fine selection of words is the necessary prerequisite if the linguistic construction is to express the real meaning of the organization’s center values and strategic target. A strategic metaphor can have both different and similar meanings and this may be the result of the opposing cognitive perspectives the stakeholders of an organization share.

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